Where Diversity Rules.

Smoked by the numbers: 50,000 Windows Phone challenges, 98% of them victories

Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph has revealed some staggering statistics from the “Smoked by Windows Phone” challenge. Over the course of the last four months–since CES 2012, specifically–Windows Phone has gone up against more than 50,000 smartphones of every sort, coming away the victor 98% of the time.

The challenge, along with the related online ad campaign, has done a great job showcasing the strengths of Windows Phone, even in the face of some controversy. Skeptics might doubt these statistics, claiming that Microsoft cheated or gamed the system, but that is most certainly not the case. We’ve watched many of the challenges, and even participated on occasion. While Microsoft’s representatives certainly had more practice than the “average” challenger, the whole process was as fair as possible.

Rudolph’s post also details some of Smoked by Windows Phone’s “awesomest” results, based on data from CES, Mobile World Congress, Microsoft Stores, the recent Behind the Tiles events, and a whole host of related challenges in 36 countries. More than 100 million people have “seen, participated in, or read about” the challenge. Eight million people, meanwhile, have watched the videos online, propelling two of the spots onto YouTube’s “Most Popular” and “Science & Technology” categories.

In response to this success, Microsoft is launching a new series of videos about the challenge. The Windows Phone team, and Ben Rudolph in particular, also made sure to extend their gratitute to everyone who has supported Smoked by Windows Phone since the beginning of the year. Somehow, we have a feeling that the challenges will continue to run for some time to come.

abi Forums

abi Editor's Choice

Nokia Lumia 900

The beautiful Nokia Lumia 900 is manufactured from a single-piece injection-molded polycarbonate shell and features a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack Display (CBD), 1.4GHz processor, 16GB of internal memory, 512MB of RAM, and a 1830mAh battery. Performance-wise, it can best nearly every device on the market. The 8MP Carl Zeiss camera takes fantastic photos, and the quality of the 1MP front-facing camera is astounding. The intuitive Windows Phone OS, support for AT&T’s 4G LTE network, and $99 price tag are just icing on the cake.

Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX

The Motorola DROID RAZR was easily one of the best Android phones of 2011. It was one of the first seriously thin phones and it had the best specifications, durability, and styling to come out of Motorola in a long time. Now, with the introduction of the MAXX variant, it's almost irresistible, even to those currently locked into a contract. With Verizon’s 4G LTE, a 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a 3300mAh battery pumping out over 21 hours of talk time, the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX is ecstasy wrapped in Kevlar.